President Trump’s self-proclaimed superhero status as “Tariff Man” does not impress Ben Shapiro.

The editor in chief of The Daily Wire played “Free Market Avenger” to “Tariff Man” on Tuesday after the president’s trade-war rhetoric with China shook the stock market. The conservative pundit released an op-ed blasting Mr. Trump’s “knee-jerk protectionism” for jeopardizing the nation’s economic health.

“I am a Tariff Man,” Mr. Trump tweeted Tuesday. “When people or countries come in to raid the great wealth of our Nation, I want them to pay for the privilege of doing so. It will always be the best way to max out our economic power. We are right now taking in $billions in Tariffs. MAKE AMERICA RICH AGAIN.”

Mr. Shapiro then took a page out of iconic free-market economist Milton Friedman’s playbook to counter the president.

“The accumulating list of irritants and flashpoints between the U.S. and its trading partners could spill over through other, less obvious channels such as confidence, financial markets and investment, compounding other threats such as rising U.S. interest rates and capital flight from emerging markets,” the conservative author wrote. “Chad Bown, a trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, estimates that 12 percent of U.S. imports were covered by tariffs in September. Assuming Mr. Trump goes ahead and hits the remainder of Chinese imports, that will top 20 percent.”

“While tariffs alone shouldn’t destroy the economy, they certainly add weight to the burden of other problems: falling oil prices, slowing real estate markets, the flattening of the yield curve thanks to ‘hawkish’ comments from the Federal Reserve, and the sinking stock market,” Mr. Shapiro continued. “None of this is a recipe for economic health. We are now nearly a full decade into economic recovery. Investors are obviously wary that that recovery may slowly be turning in a negative direction. President Trump’s economically illiterate trade commentary won’t help — and is driving American allies to ramp up their own trade barriers to retaliate.”

Mr. Trump told supporters on Twitter that he will “happily sign” any deal with China that he considers fair.

“Let the negotiations begin. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he tweeted.

Tariff Man would be the world’s least successful superhero, with a long record of carnage and stupidity behind him https://t.co/nX1qFKJMpw

Calm down there Ben. I guess if you can’t figure out when Trump is posturing for the competition maybe they can’t either. In the meantime let the guy who has managed economic negotiations for 50 years do what he does best without too much rattling from the over educated peanut gallery.

Hey Ben as far as a rise in interest rates go unleash on the Fed which has already raised rates 7 or 8 times during Trump’s tenure which is still in it’s second year compared to just once over the 8 years Obama was in office. Trump has to negotiate a fairer trade deal with China because the US has been raked over the coals with China dumping all of their products on the US and not reciprocating fairly. Of course everyone knows protectionism and tariffs are antithetical to free trade but what we have with China isn’t free trade. It’s been slanted all in their favor. Let Trump do what he does best while we still have a country. Otherwise we’ll have Chinese overlords running the show sooner than we all realize. I think Ben was spooked by sone gyrations in his mutual funds. Relax Ben it will climb back up to where it was.

I don’t completely agree with Ben this time, but it does go to show what party believes in freedom. Never saw the dems criticizing President Obama this way. Let conservatives speak there mind, that is the way it should be.

Tariffs are taxes paid by the… wait for it… consumer! WE are paying more for these goods and resources. What the President should be doing is using his businessman’s brain to figure out how to make it less costly to make/build/sell things here (e.g., by reducing regulation and other government burdens on businesses), not making it artificially more expensive to import.

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